Browse Off Beat Articles

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — Authorities said a man urinated on the side of the Royal Oak police station, and then walked inside one afternoon last week. Lt. Gordon Young told the Detroit Free Press that "after urinating, the suspect entered the station in an attempt to file a police report on an undisclosed matter." That's when witnesses informed the police at ...

GARDEN CITY, Idaho - Authorities say two men attempted to rob a local buyer interested in purchasing a laptop computer off Craigslist. Only problem? The buyer was Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney. Garden City Police report Raney was looking to purchase a laptop computer and had agreed to meet the potential seller at 6650 Glenwood St. in Garden City. When Raney ...

CHICAGO - The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is calling on Police Supt. Jody Weis to resign. In a letter posted Monday on the group's website, Richard L. Aguilar, financial secretary, wrote, "Please take a cue from our mayor. Resign." The call follows a Weis-penned Chicago Sun-Times letter to the editor defending his tenure as chief cop, and ahead of a ...

GREELEY, CO - If you're trying to escape from police, you might want to take a hint from Adam Segura, who learned an important lesson Thursday: Don't steal a police car, especially if you're drunk. Segura, 32, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence; once for allegedly driving his own car while drunk; and the other for driving ...

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - General rule of thumb: when looking to buy marijuana, don't text the sheriff. Authorities said a Helena teen sent out a text message last week in search of pot, but instead of contacting the drug dealer, he hit a wrong number and inadvertently sent the message to Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton. The text read, ...

CHRISTINA LAKE, British Columbia — Marijuana growers in the B.C. Interior are using a new kind of bear trap, but its not bears they’re trapping. Police uncovered two separate outdoor marijuana crops of about 2,300 plants near Christina Lake, just a few kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border. When officers arrived in the area two weeks ago, they found 13 black bears ...

BROOKFIELD, Wis. — A driver who tried to change his sweaty clothes while driving through a Milwaukee suburb was stopped by police but let off with a warning. Police said that when they pulled the 54-year-old over in Brookfield, he complained he was uncomfortable in his clothes because he had spent a sweltering day at the Wisconsin State Fair. The Milwaukee ...

PHILADELPHIA - If all goes as the prosecution hopes, a Philadelphia jury as early as this week will make Eric Deshann Floyd and Levon T. Warner the 221st and 222nd death-row inmates in Pennsylvania. Convicted last week by the same jury for the first-degree murder of police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski in the aftermath of a 2008 bank robbery, Floyd, 35, and ...

CHICAGO - A South Side man faces federal felony charges after he allegedly pulled a gun on a Chicago motorist while impersonating a police officer. Dashonne T. Creamer, 32, appeared in Cook County Court for a bond hearing Tuesday. Prosecutors said he flagged down two real police officers Sunday afternoon to complain that the motorist disobeyed his attempts to direct traffic ...

BELLEAIR BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A man who apparently passed out on a pool float at a Tampa area beach ended up drifting about a mile from Florida's shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued the man, identified as Jerry Whipple, on Wednesday afternoon. Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Mariana O'Leary says they suspect the man ...

PHILADELPHIA - Police said a prison guard was fatally shot late Sunday night in North Philadelphia home as he was leaving for work. The shooting happened on the 2400 block of West Elkhart Street. According to officials, 36-year-old Lonnie Rowland was in his prison uniform and preparing for his shift at the time he was killed. Rowland's grandmother said she was ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A blonde, pony-tailed burglar ate some food, drank some alcohol, tried on clothes and then found the bed in a New Zealand home just right. But upon finding a modern-day Goldilocks asleep in his bed, the homeowner in the southern city of Christchurch exercised an option The Three Bears didn't: He called police. In court Monday, ...

SABINA, Ohio — Police say a man called 911 from the back of a moving tractor-trailer after he jumped onto the truck on a dare from friends, then traveled about 10 miles on an Ohio highway. In the call early Friday, 24-year-old Brandon Farmer tells a Fayette County dispatcher that it was a stupid idea and that he's "holding on for ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Christan Morales said her son just wanted to honor American troops when he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures. But the school banned the hat because it ran afoul of the district's zero-tolerance weapons policy. Why? The toy soldiers were carrying tiny guns. "His teacher called and said it ...

LOS ANGELES - The California Highway Patrol officer who was killed Friday morning during a pursuit in Redlands was identified as Tom Coleman, an officer in the San Bernardino division of the agency, officials said. Chp2 Coleman, a seven-year veteran of the department, was killed about 6:30 a.m. during a pursuit that began minutes earlier when he tried to pull over ...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A man robbed an Anchorage bank and escaped on a bicycle but didn't get far, police said Thursday. The suspect crashed his bike into a patrol car, slid across the hood and took off running but was detained half a block away five minutes after the robbery, Anchorage Police Lt. Dave Parker said. Police identified the suspect ...

WHEATLAND, N.Y. (AP) - Police say four upstate New York teenagers who tried to hold their breath for the time it took their car to go a third of a mile were hurt when the driver fainted. Authorities say three 19-year-old men and a 16-year-old boy were traveling together late Monday night when they decided to try to hold their breath ...

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Norfolk sheriff's deputy George Bell has lost his title as the tallest man in the United States but hopes he can still be an inspiration to others. The Guinness World Record Association measured Rochester's Igor Vovkovinskiy at 7 feet, 8.33 inches tall during NBC's "The Dr. Oz Show" on Monday. He edged out Bell by a third of ...

DANVERS, Mass. — Police said a cleaning man was taken to a hospital after being sucked into a machine at a sausage-making company in Danvers. The accident happened Thursday night as the man was cleaning the vacuum-type machine that is used to season the meat at DiLigui Sausage Co. Police said the man's head and shoulders became stuck in the machine ...

IMPERIAL, Calif. — A highway patrol pilot flying to monitor freeway speeders was killed when his aircraft crashed in Southern California, officials said Saturday. Officer Danny Benavides, 39, was flying solo when his plane went down about 9:30 a.m. Friday in a desert area near Highway 78 and Split Mountain Road in Imperial County, the patrol said in a news release. ...